murf400 Posted January 30, 2010 Share Posted January 30, 2010 Hi lads. Iv bein thinking of puting the whole rear end of a bmw e30 in my manta 400 16 v project. It looks like a handy enuf job and it must be strong.I think the wheel stud patern is the same and it has discs allready.Good dif raito and lsd options too cheap and easy replacement parts. Wos wondering if anyone else has done this or pro's and con's of it? Would the revaultion wheels have any other fiting probs other then the stud patern? Is it too good to be true? Any advice before i do something i regreat would be great! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mantaray Posted January 30, 2010 Share Posted January 30, 2010 Over to Simon P for this one I think. Contact Simon P on the forum, he should be able to offer adivce. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
murf400 Posted January 31, 2010 Author Share Posted January 31, 2010 Over to Simon P for this one I think. Contact Simon P on the forum, he should be able to offer adivce. Cheers Mantaray il try that! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
keith1200 Posted January 31, 2010 Share Posted January 31, 2010 OOoo! there is a nut-case from ireland who fitted a big beemer engine to his manta and fitted a chevette body to a Mazda/Honda 2 seater thingie. I spec-ing here! he might be able to answer your question. Think his user name was; johnny sideways or something. Maybe one of the Irish lads will know! interesting idea you have, if it works out? would def be interesting All the best keith Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
opel2000 Posted January 31, 2010 Share Posted January 31, 2010 If it was me looking at doing this I would simply start with a tape measure. I would check the width of the Beemer axle and measure the locating points and see what would need chopping and changing, from your introductory post I would hazard a guess that all the work required would be well within your capabilities. I personally don't know of this being done, and to me this does come across as a very intersting idea, especially as you would have the same PCD for the wheels and an LSD to boot. I'm always of the opinion that anything can be made to fit. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rutts Posted January 31, 2010 Share Posted January 31, 2010 best way of doing this conversion is to take a look how the caterham guys fit the sierra rear end, the bmw set up is very similar i cant think of the name of it but please bare with me. it uses a independant rear end with a cross over bar connecting the hubs so the rear is like a solid axle but using all the independant bits. works fantastic a guy near me does this for sprinting and f2 stock car guys its cheap works brilliantly. if you speak to kev abbott he has an axle set up like this awaiting fitting to his motor. oh and John Ballinger has this set up on his winning rally manta. sierra LSD diffs £100, manta LSD diffs £650 its a no brainer and you have a four/five link back end also Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
murf400 Posted January 31, 2010 Author Share Posted January 31, 2010 Now that sounds very interesting. I was a bit afraid of the bmw irs taking from the tail happy 80's drive that the manta is. The job looks very easy the e30 a very simple rear end. Maybe even rose joint it before it went in. I think i would make up a false axle that would mount into the manta with the bmw mounting points on it too, if you get my drift. Looks like one thing for it get the measuring tape out! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
young kadett kinin Posted January 31, 2010 Share Posted January 31, 2010 Just had a quick look on autodata for you's, i have the rear track width for both the manta gte and BMW E30 320i Beemer E30 320i rear track: 1399mm MAnta 2.0 GTE: 1375mm The odd thing i found is that on the beemer in has a wider track on the front which is 1405mm, i know not much. The manta track is the same all around. I would be very interested in this also. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
murf400 Posted January 31, 2010 Author Share Posted January 31, 2010 Maybe the bmw with the big 6 front heavy engine it would help understeer being wider at the front? Just at a glance the e30 rear end has the spring seats are in front of the shaft's and damper's are behind them.Fingers crossed you could use the mantas own spring seats and damper towers just modify the bmw wish bones(if thats what one would call them) and 2 fixing points for the front of the cross beam then a box section between the mantas legs with a mounting on it. Il get a lend of an e30 have a look at properly next week.Il get some pics and measurements of both Sorry ment to put "dif" mounting on box section between the mantas legs Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paul Barrett Posted January 31, 2010 Share Posted January 31, 2010 (edited) im in the process of this on my a series..My link Edited January 31, 2010 by novashed Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
murf400 Posted February 1, 2010 Author Share Posted February 1, 2010 congrat's thats going to be one hell of a car! great progress too! I thought it might be to good to be true, Im a little confused on the camber isue. Is it that the bmw floor mounts at the front are higher up then where the manta floor would end up? I need to look at it in the car and see if i can figure it out Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
carlos-kadetts Posted February 1, 2010 Share Posted February 1, 2010 (edited) this axle swap was done by this guy on his kadett. (kadett and manta axles almost identical in how they fix to the car) Just scroll down til you see the axle pics. http://retrorides.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=readersrides&action=display&thread=60455 seemed to be quite successfull, with a few things more or less lining up. i think keith1200 was refering to the 'kadett coupe' shell being grafted onto the honda s2000 floorpan etc. this was 'mad'fergal who did this over in ireland, the guy with the green manta that had an m3 engine! this can be found over on total opel website. but calling kadett coupes, chevettes, would offend certain kadett owners! like people refering to your mantas as common cavaliers. hehe. but i'm not that sensitive. good luck if you attempt the axle anyway, cheers, carlos. Edited February 1, 2010 by carlos-kadetts Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lamchop77 Posted February 1, 2010 Share Posted February 1, 2010 (edited) Hi lads. Iv bein thinking of puting the whole rear end of a bmw e30 in my manta 400 16 v project. It looks like a handy enuf job and it must be strong.I think the wheel stud patern is the same and it has discs allready.Good dif raito and lsd options too cheap and easy replacement parts. Wos wondering if anyone else has done this or pro's and con's of it? Would the revaultion wheels have any other fiting probs other then the stud patern? Is it too good to be true? Any advice before i do something i regreat would be great! I have a sierra rearend fitted to the grasser (kadett coupe). The width is virtually the same as the manta b axle and the spring mounts line up as well!!!! Had to fab up some moutings to locate to the original hangers and also shock mounts on the swinging arms. Put the whole sierra rear frame on and mounted it from the floor. Diff change now takes about 20mins. there are clearance issues on the floor pan which you need to cut away and refab around plus you need a new prop. Car handles really well and acceleration has increased (gateing well is what you need for grassing). Took me a weekend from start to finish. HTH Chris Edited February 1, 2010 by lamchop77 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
simon p Posted February 2, 2010 Share Posted February 2, 2010 Over to Simon P for this one I think. Contact Simon P on the forum, he should be able to offer adivce. Cheers Chris , i've emailed him with some basic advice and some pics of IRS ends i've done before. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
murf400 Posted February 3, 2010 Author Share Posted February 3, 2010 Cheers for the advice and help lads! Im going to have a crack at it soon as i make the time, il put sum pics together and post them on the project page! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
simon p Posted February 3, 2010 Share Posted February 3, 2010 Cheers for the advice and help lads! Im going to have a crack at it soon as i make the time, il put sum pics together and post them on the project page! no worries mate, glad you like the pics too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SJ_Sathanas Posted February 4, 2010 Share Posted February 4, 2010 best way of doing this conversion is to take a look how the caterham guys fit the sierra rear end, the bmw set up is very similar i cant think of the name of it but please bare with me. it uses a independant rear end with a cross over bar connecting the hubs so the rear is like a solid axle but using all the independant bits. works fantastic a guy near me does this for sprinting and f2 stock car guys its cheap works brilliantly. if you speak to kev abbott he has an axle set up like this awaiting fitting to his motor. oh and John Ballinger has this set up on his winning rally manta. sierra LSD diffs £100, manta LSD diffs £650 its a no brainer and you have a four/five link back end also Sounds like a DeDion type your descirbing there, otherwise known as Semi-Indipendent. See 'em alot on kit cars, especially Cobras. The E30 uses a Semi-Trailing Arm set-up, incidentally. Pretty good in it's day but they suffer badly from strange toe gains when the bushes are worn, and doesn't compaire well to a decent multi-link set-up. Still an improvement over a solid, axle ofcourse. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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